Benson, S., 2017.

The Expectation of the Image, the Surface of the Illusion

The research in The Expectation of the Image, the Surface of the Illusion investigates the potential of painting as an invitation and places value on the encounter with the painted surface.

The significance of reading the surface of a painting is explored through a series of projects from large scale paintings which address the physical relation of the painted image to the space in which they are seen, to works which explore the painted surface as an invitation; to be drawn in and seduced by.

Acknowledging Norman Bryson in Looking at the Overlooked, that "painting is an art made not only of pigments on a surface, but of signs in semantic space," the paper questions where meaning is found within the process of looking at painting and presents research on the painted surface as a space that makes visible the gap between intention (of the artist) and expectation (of the viewer). The research contributes to the field by presenting through examples of practice and from the position of a practitioner in painting.

The Expectation of the Image, the Surface of the Illusion was presented at the International Congress on Contemporary European Painting at the University of Porto in April 2017. It was the Keynote for the Painting & Teaching theme at the Congress and applied research on the significance of the reading of the painted surface to the context of teaching painting within British Art Schools.